Question regarding searing/Wicked Good Charcoal

kip stabone

So I cooked up some tacos tonight and did some carne asada. The marinade I used called for olive oil among other ingredients. I seared the meat on my 13" CI grid at about 650# or so for a couple of minutes. While the cook turned out pretty well, some parts of the skirt steak had a burned/charred flavor to it. I know there has been some discussion around here about not using EVOO on steaks before searing because it burns at low temps. What is the alternative? Should I use peanut or canola oil in the marinade instead?

The other thing is that due to some recommendations on this board I purchased some Wicked Good Charcoal while in VT last month. This was my first cook using it and I was really impressed. Seemed like every piece was a big chunk, lit really fast, didn't have the dust that my normal Gordon Food Service (Royal Oak?) brand does. Any way, thanks for the past advice and thanks in advance for advice regarding oils to use for searing and whether it can be used as a substitute for olive oil in a marinade.

Hatch

Standard Olive Oil has a much higher smoke point than Extra Virgin.
I would start there....

Eggsakley

First off, Olive oil does have a much lower smoke point than most other cooking oils. For searing a steak I would probably recommend a vegetable oil or if available, grapeseed oil which has vary little flavor and an extremely high smoke point. As for the Wicked Good, I tried it myself this weekend and was very impressed with the size and density of the the pieces. Wish I lived closer to an outlet as that would probably be the way I would go if it were readily available.